Fourth Victim Dies After "Underground" Restaurant Shootout

A fourth victim has died following a weekend shootout at a makeshift restaurant in a home in West Adams, said Los Angeles Police Department Officer Drake Madison.

The victim was a man who had been in critical condition, he said. He was declared deceased today. Three others were declared dead at the scene after cops responded to 12:30 a.m. reports of shots fired near Rimpau and West Jefferson boulevards Sunday, police said.

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A man and a woman detained as persons of interest in the shooting were apparently questioned and released. Two suspects, 33-year-old Mowayne McKay and 25-year-old Diego Reid, were arrested yesterday on suspicion of murder after they turned up at hospitals seeking treatment for gunshot wounds, police said.

It's still not clear how the violence unfolded, but several print and television reports indicate a drug dispute triggered gunfire and return gunfire inside the residence and possibly outside as well. Eleven other people were hospitalized, authorities said.

The location was a Jamaican catering service and makeshift eatery called Dilly's, where a birthday party had been taking place overnight Saturday and early Sunday, according to cops and reports. Officer Mike Lopez described it as "a residence with an underground restaurant."

Mayor Eric Garcetti on Sunday called the shooting "horrifying," adding that it was "the latest example of a senseless gun violence epidemic that causes so much pain and sorrow in our city and across the nation."

Dennis Romero has worked on staff at several magazines and newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian, and, as a
young stringer, the New York Times.